Ceunant-y-Parc

Cadw's description

Location

Situated at the bottom of a private track down into the Afon Maesgwyn valley from the road between Garreg and Croesor, 1km north-east of Plas Brondanw and 0.2km south-west of Parc.

History

A dwelling house originally constructed as an office for Parc slate quarry. Parc Quarry was developed as underground workings in the 1860s after the construction of the Croesor Tramway, to which it was connected by an incline. It was operated, in conjunction with Croesor Quarry nearby, until the 1920s. Moses Kellow, a pioneering electrical engineer responsible for developing alternating current traction in the early twentieth century, was the manager of both sites. The quarry’s main output was specialist slabs and ridging slates. The office at Ceunant y Parc was used to demonstrate the varied products of the quarry, a typical sales practice at slate quarries. The building is said to have been adapted by Clough Williams Ellis as part of the Plas Brondanw estate.

Exterior

A single storey dwelling of symmetrical, H-shaped, plan, entirely clad in dark blue slate. The products utilised include square and fish-scale slates, cills, classical window surrounds with pronounced voussoirs, plinth slabs, distinctive corner shafts and ridge tiles. Gabled roof, with cross gables to tall transverse wings at either end, with chimneys to the rear. Scalloped barge boards to the gables in Plas Brondanw estate green. Projecting half hipped porch to the centre, with a plank door, overlight and ornate ironwork. Tall round-headed windows to the main gables with fixed 4-pane glazing and two-pane overlights. At the south end there is a tall 3-light transomed casement rising through the eaves under a hipped roof. There are two small, horned sashes without glazing bars, at the north end. The rear of the building has a lean-to with further similar sash windows.

Interior

The building is divided into two high, square rooms either side of a central corridor, with services in the rear outshut. Roof structure of curved pitch pine trusses set diagonally, with boarding above, tied by wrought iron rods. The roof trusses spring from low corbels with stylised plaster decorations of a female head, shell and flowers. Second door inside the porch and others from corridor to rooms are six panel, with upper panels glazed. Slate fireplaces in both main rooms.

Reason for designation

Listed as a rare and important surviving example of an intact quarry office demonstrating the varied use of slate building products.